


A Final Glance

by salienne



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Episode Related, Episode: s02e04 The Girl in the Fireplace, F/M, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-08-10
Updated: 2007-08-10
Packaged: 2017-10-22 14:18:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/238943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/salienne/pseuds/salienne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>With just one glance, Rose witnessed all of this, and in that moment, horror settled deep in her stomach, an icy, painful weight. Quickly, she brought her eyes back to the Doctor and tried to force a smile. She couldn’t quite manage it. “Go.”</i></p><p>A missing scene from TGitF right before the Doctor crashes through the mirror to save Reinette.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Final Glance

“No, smash the glass, smash the time window, there’d be no way back!”

Rose could see him, the Doctor, struggling with the sonic screwdriver, with scrap parts, with any and all controls he could find, working faster than perhaps she had ever seen him work before.

All to save Madame de Pompadour.

“Could everyone just calm down? Please.” That voice, the image, all seen and heard like a movie, like she and the Doctor and Mickey were standing not in a dying spaceship but in a theater, watching some fiction unfold on the screen. The only difference was, this was real, so very real, and Madame de Pompadour was not faking her courage or faking the danger. Madame de Pompadour was going to die.

Daring him, begging him to do something, Rose looked away from the Doctor and turned her attention to the King’s Mistress. “Such a commotion,” the woman was saying, “such distressing noise. Kindly remember that this is Versailles. This is the Royal Court. And we are French.”

Watching her, seeing her confront those clockwork monsters, Rose couldn’t help but be impressed. She had met this woman, truly met her, just once, and from that lone encounter, Rose knew why the Doctor liked her so much. Madame de Pompadour was strong, she was intelligent, and even now, Rose could see her power. This woman wasn’t competition and she wasn’t a victim, not then; she was magnificence and bravery, standing tall when it was _her_ life in danger, calming others when it should have been her that needed calming—and Rose could not let her die.

Rose turned away from the unfolding scene just in time to see the Doctor throw down a metallic keyboard. “Damn it!” She was expecting him to do something now, to come up with some brilliant plan, to run around rambling at 100,000 miles an hour and save the day. But he just stood there.

With a face so disgusted and frustrated she hardly recognized it, he watched Madame de Pompadour speak. “…And my decision is no. I shall not be going with you today. I have seen your world…”

Aching in sympathy for the Doctor, Rose noticed a flutter of movement behind him. Suddenly, she had a breakthrough. “Doctor, waddya need t’get through that glass?”

He glanced at her, distracted, annoyed. “I told you, a truck, a battering ram, a missile. Besides, even if I could get through—“

“What about the horse?”

A moment of silence.

“The what?”

“The horse.” Rose pointed behind him, where the Doctor’s newest companion had clopped into the room.

The Doctor looked at it, looked back at her, and grinned, practically leaping over before lifting her in a tremendous hug. “Rose Tyler, you’re a genius!”

Rose smiled and returned the embrace, but for her, the gesture was hollow, half-meaningless. _There’d be no way back._ In a moment, the Doctor would remember those words. In a moment, he did. Rose felt it, the way his body tensed and his chest froze as he stopped breathing, the way she already missed him as he pulled away. Unmoving, Rose could say nothing when their eyes met, as his hands grasped her arms almost painfully. His face was empty, completely unanimated. Already, he radiated regret.

I’d be leaving you here, alone, he was telling her. I’d be leaving you and the TARDIS and Mickey and I’d be 3000 years away, unable to ever come back for you. We’d never see each other again. You’d never feel my hand, my breath, my arms around you, again. You’d never see me again. We’d never see where this would go.

Madame de Pompadour was on her knees now, surrounded by the robots, daring her nightmare to keep on being her nightmare, because it would not be around for long. Although Rose could barely make out the woman’s words, she could hear the coldness in her tone, could see the defiance in the lift of her chin. And still, the robots were closing in. With just one glance, Rose witnessed all of this, and in that moment, horror settled deep in her stomach, an icy, painful weight. Quickly, she brought her eyes back to the Doctor and tried to force a smile. She couldn’t quite manage it. “Go.”

For a long, long moment, the Doctor looked at her, searching her eyes, her face, everything, perhaps trying to memorize her features, perhaps putting off the inevitable, or perhaps just reading her reaction. Rose wasn’t sure. But all too soon, he was gone, running away to the only way of saving Madame de Pompadour that he could find.

The Doctor got on the horse.

“What’s goin’ on, what’s he doin’?” Mickey demanded, his face sweeping back and forth from Rose to the Doctor and back. Neither one responded.

A glance, a final look as their eyes met, just for a moment. An _I’m sorry_ Rose could have sworn she heard in her mind. Was this goodbye?

And now Madame de Pompadour was on the floor with key-shaped knives at her neck and he was galloping after her, the horse whinnying. And now the Doctor had smashed through the glass, leaving nothing but faded steel in his wake.

A look and her Doctor was gone.


End file.
